I'm looking to turn my basement storage room into a Home Theatre room. I would like to spend around $2000 for the Projector and the Screen.

My viewing habits will be about 50% gaming and 50% movies. I'm looking for about 100" Viewing area. The room is pitch black (no windows). I would like 1920x1080 projector and I have no interest in 3D. I'm generally a fan of black levels as the biggest factor in Image quality. I have a Pioneer Kuro Plasma that I use as my primary tv.

Here's the big issue. The room has a sunken ceiling for half of it (it covers the ductwork coming from the furnace). So, the area where I want to put the screen has an 8' ceiling. The area where I want to put the projector has a 7' ceiling. Would this work? I would put the projector about 11' from the screen. It would also be right above the couch, so a quiet projector would be ideal.

I was looking at the Epson 8350 as that seems to have great bang for buck in my price range. Any other projectors that I should look into?

As for a screen, I haven't done much research into it, but it seems that since I will have the projector relatively close to the screen and that I have a room with no light, I should get a grey screen? Say around a 0.8gain? I was thinking that a ceiling mounted screen that I could lower would be ideal as I could put some shelves along the wall and then have the screen lower infront of them when it was time to watch something.

Any ideas what might fit the bill?

One other issue: my furnace is in an alcove in the room, so I'm looking to put a soundproof door and soundproof the wall to the furnace room to avoid any sound from the furnace itself but also to avoid any sound from the theatre leaking through the duct work to the rest of the house. If any one has any advice on soundproofing materials, that would be appreciated too.

The 8350 doesn't have the best blacks, and for a screen that small (100") you can get the screens dirt cheap (under $200) so that it will not take up too much of your budget, especially if going with a black-frame manual pulldown instead of a fixed frame.

My recommendation for you is either a refurbished Epson 8700ub or a JVC RS-40 B-STOCK, both are the black-level champs in their categories. Personally, I'd take the RS-40 over the Epson.

However, do note there is a bit of gaming lag on the JVC, but it isn't that noticeable unless playing multiplayer games or intense timing games (guitar hero type things).

If you are mainly focused on gaming more, then the Optoma hd33 or Benq w6000 might fit the bill.

Depends on the material to if you can see waves (even though all materials will probably develop some waves).

If you get the Da-Lite HP 2.4 gain material, the waves are invisible due to the light refraction of the material, so it doesn't really matter. Also rolling the screen back up for a day or two tends to get rid of the waves again.

I've had some trouble with the lower end Model-B Da-Lite screens not rolling back up, you can still roll them up without too much effort, but you have to do it manually on the floor and it takes 2 people.

For $180 more the RS40 is the Kuro of projectors. As Coder mentioned, I'd spend the extra $180 on it. The difference is much more than some make it out to be in the area of contrast/black levels. The only projectors that can beat or match it in that area are the higher end JVCs, all of them will cost you at least four thousand dollars or more above the pricing of the AVS RS40 B-stock models.

Interesting... Correct me if I'm wrong, but the link you sent has the Epson at $1600 and the AVS deal for the JVC is $1750 + $30 shipping, right? So it's a $180 price difference?

I was concerned with the comments about a bit more lag with the JVC and the reliability and bulb replacement cost. The impression I was getting from reading threads here is that the RS-40s build quality is not quite as good as the Epson's. Do you have any thoughts on the RS-40's lag?

Interesting... Correct me if I'm wrong, but the link you sent has the Epson at $1600 and the AVS deal for the JVC is $1750 + $30 shipping, right? So it's a $180 price difference?

I was concerned with the comments about a bit more lag with the JVC and the reliability and bulb replacement cost. The impression I was getting from reading threads here is that the RS-40s build quality is not quite as good as the Epson's. Do you have any thoughts on the RS-40's lag?

You're right I goofed! lol..I'm still half awake. I haven't spent any time playing games on the RS45. The build quality of the the JVC's are quite a bit better than that of the Epson. It's the older lamps 002 that have caused some issues as a whole. I will say that Epson's warranty is better than any manufacture out there Bar none! Just check the weight differences. The RS40 is 33 pounds, I think the Epson is 16 pounds.

In my theater, I have ambient light and need to change it back from a theater environment to a den environment from time to time. I have a motorized screen that extends out from a boxed enclosure in front of a bay window. It retracts when I want my den back.

The screen is a 120 inch diagonal 16:9 screen. My projector, a Sony, is mounted a little over twelve feet from the screen. In my case it's actually mounted in the garage behind me, and projecting through plexiglass with a little rectangular cutout so the image only travels through air from the projector to the screen.

Measuring from the bottom of my screen enclosure to the floor, it's seven feet. In fact, I have it so it stops at about 16 inches off the floor. Still can get well over 100 inches diagonal on a 16:9 image. The available vertical for my screen is 4.8 feet and the available horizontal is 8.5 feet. That gives me a diagonal picture, if my math is right, of over 115 inches.

You have eight feet to play with for your screen height. You also have a black room. Were I in your shoes, I would think seriously about a 150 inch diagonal screen.

You can get a 120 diagonal in there pretty easy, assuming your projector placement accomodates it.

The more I look at my downstairs space, I think I would actually mount the projector on a shelf along the back wall which would only be about 13' away from the screen. (I think I would actually have to do it this way based on the throw distance of the RS-40). Also, I don't know if I could go any bigger than 120" - with the speakers on the sides and the centre channel below the screen, I figure I could get an absolute max of 120" - depending on the width of the borders around the screen surface.. If I did go for that, would that affect projector choice at all?

I thought about a motorized screen as well, but I was worried about the cost -may I ask how much your screen was and do you like it?

Alright, so based on your recommendations, I'm planning to get this projector: JVC RS-40 B Stock from AVS.

I was thinking of doing a ceiling mounted pull-down screen initially, but I'm looking at a fixed frame model now. The room will be primarily used as a theatre room so there's no reason to hide the screen.

Would it be better to get the 1.2 gain Matte White or the 0.8 gain High Contrast Grey? Or a different screen altogether? The room is pitch black and the projector will be mounted 13'6" away from the screen. The main viewing position will be 11' from the screen.

Alright, so based on your recommendations, I'm planning to get this projector: JVC RS-40 B Stock from AVS.

I was thinking of doing a ceiling mounted pull-down screen initially, but I'm looking at a fixed frame model now. The room will be primarily used as a theatre room so there's no reason to hide the screen.

Would it be better to get the 1.2 gain Matte White or the 0.8 gain High Contrast Grey? Or a different screen altogether? The room is pitch black and the projector will be mounted 13'6" away from the screen. The main viewing position will be 11' from the screen.

Thanks!

I would go with the 1.2 gain white screen. I wouldn't consider a pull down at all. Go with a fixed frame screen.Your projector is roughly the same distance as mine is from the screen. I also use a 120" screen. The JVC is more than bright enough for that size at that distance. Save the gray screen for projectors that need help in black levels. The JVC doesn't come up short in that area.
Visual Apex http://www.visualapex.com/Projector-...or-Screens.asp
Carada http://www.carada.com/default.aspx is another brand to consider.